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The Australians will not get a taste of Bangladeshi spin in their only three-day tour match from October 3. The national selectors picked a BCB XI squad of 13 devoid of any genuine spinners but included four pace bowlers for the docile Fatullah pitch.National selector Minhajul Abedin said that it was the team management’s strategy to not give the touring side an early advantage. “We are taking home advantage,” he said. “Like any other touring side that comes to Bangladesh, we will make it challenging for Australia to play spin, which is our biggest area of strength. We have picked more batsmen because Australia has a good bowling attack.”For the last few years Bangladesh have tended to keep specialist spinners, especially left-armers, away from touring sides for practice games. The only spin that Steven Smith’s side will face will be from allrounders Mahmudul Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Shuvagata Hom and Naeem Islam. Mahmudul and Shuvagata are likely to lead the spin attack as they have been doing well in the recent past.The first Test between Bangladesh and Australia will begin on October 9 in Chittagong.BCB XI squad Imrul Kayes, Anamul Haque, Mahmudul Hasan, Mohammad Mithun, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Shuvagata Hom, Naeem Islam, Al-Amin Hossain, Kamrul Islam, Abu Jayed, Shafiul Islam

Batsman Vusi Sibanda and left-arm seamer Brian Vitori return to the Zimbabwe squad for the four T20Is against Bangladesh starting on January 15. Sean Williams, who was ruled out of Zimbabwe’s ongoing Twenty20 series against Afghanistan with a groin injury, is also part of the 16-man side.Tinashe Panyangara and Craig Ervine were notable exceptions, although reports suggested Ervine had caught the flu after scoring 73 in an ODI two weeks ago. Panyangara was picked for the tour of UAE, but has not played a single game so far.Sibanda had been in terrible form over the past two years. His last fifty in international cricket had come in August 2013, and since then he has averaged 16.34 in 24 matches across formats. He has not played for Zimbabwe since July 2015, but his recent domestic record shows clear signs of improvement. This past December, he struck back-to-back fifties in List A cricket and racked up three fifty-plus scores in four innings in first-class cricket including 140 and 90 in the same match.Vitori has spent the same amount of time outside the Zimbabwe team as Sibanda. He comes back as one of four frontline seamers including Neville Madziva, Luke Jongwe and Taurai Muzarabani. Donald Tiripano, who had made his T20I debut a couple of days ago, did not find a place among them. Graeme Cremer will lead the spin attack along with left-armer Tendai Chisoro and Wellington Masakadza.Zimbabwe will fly out to Dhaka on January 11, mere hours after wrapping up their limited-overs series against Afghanistan in the UAE.Zimbabwe squad: Elton Chigumbura, Malcolm Waller, Peter Moor, Sikandar Raza, Graeme Cremer, Hamilton Masakadza, Wellington Masakadza, Richmond Mutumbami, Sean Williams, Chamu Chibhabha, Neville Madziva, Luke Jongwe, Taurai Muzarabani, Tendai Chisoro, Vusi Sibanda, Brian Vitori

Scorecard

Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, took his maiden List A five-for as India A managed a 44-run win over Sri Lanka A in the fifth match of the triangular tournament in Nairobi. A holiday crowd, mainly comprising the Indian and Sri Lankan diaspora, turned out to support the teams.Sri Lanka, who were chasing 199 for victory, lost their way early in the chase. Dilruwan Perera was the first to go, edging Irfan Pathan to wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. Malinda Warnapura, the Sri Lanka captain and Mahela Udawatte were trapped in front by Pankaj Singh and Praveen Kumar respectively.Gayan Wijekoon and Kaushal Silva stabilised Sri Lanka’s chase with a 53-run stand for the fourth wicket. Wijekoon got a reprieve in the 18th over, when a loud appeal for caught behind was turned down after which Irfan Pathan was seen remonstrating with umpire Subhash Modi, an incident that could bring match referee Jasmer Singh into the picture.Wijekoon, who was the more aggressive of the two, was particularly strong hitting down the ground. But the run-rate fell when Ojha began bowling in tandem with seamer Yo Mahesh. Ojha claimed his first wicket when Silva was hit on the foot, missing a flighted ball to be adjudged leg-before for 26 and then had Thilina Kandamby caught brilliantly by Patel off the very next ball.Kaushal Lokuarachchi mistimed a sweep shot in Ojha’s fourth over and was caught by substitute Rajesh Pawar at mid-on. Wijekoon, who looked comfortable at the crease, was run out by Irfan Pathan after scoring 46 off 57 balls.Nuwan Kulasekara and Chamara Kapugedera then added 29 in quick time for the eighth wicket as the match seemed to be heading for a close finish. Kapugedera struck Yusuf Pathan past mid-on for four, before hitting a six over long-on in the 40th over.Irfan Pathan broke the partnership when he had Kapugedera fending a short ball to Patel. Ojha then finished off the tail, Kulasekara and Akalanka Ganegama falling in similar fashion: caught by Pawar at deep midwicket attempting to clear the boundary.Earlier, India were dismissed for 198, the stand-out performer being left-arm medium-pacer Sujeewa de Silva, who finished with figures of 4 for 33.Warnapura asked India to bat after winning the toss, and his decision was justified when Kulasekara removed the dangerous Kumar in the seventh over, trapping him in front for 18 . Kumar began his innings aggressively, striking three consecutive fours off Ganegama in the third over. Patel joined Kumar in the pavilion, nicking an away swinger from de Silva to wicketkeeper Silva.Mohammad Kaif was joined by Cheteshwar Pujara, but they were not allowed to score freely by the accurate Sri Lanka pace attack. de Silva was unlucky when Silva dropped a difficult chance off Pujara. But Pujara was sent back in the next over when Ganegama got an inswinger to take the top of off stump.Subramaniam Badrinath was dismissed for 8 by Lokuarachchi, the legspinner, when an outside edge was snapped up by Warnapura at first slip. Lokuarachchi could have had his second wicket if Warnapura had caught an edge from Arjun Yadav.Kaif kept the runs coming, albeit at a trickle. However, he was caught by Udawatte at point when he played an uppish cut off Kulasekara after scoring 38 off 82 balls with three fours. Yusuf Pathan joined Yadav and the duo sparked a lower-order revival with a 75-run stand for the sixth wicket. Yusuf Pathan sent a Kulasekara delivery into the adjoining hockey stadium to begin the fireworks.Yusuf Pathan was dropped by Kandamby on the long-off boundary off the unlucky Lokuarachchi, but that did not stop his aggressive intent. The ball soon had to be replaced when he slogged Wijekoon into the car park.Yadav then joined the assault by clearing long-off and then long-on in a Lokuarachchi over. Yusuf Pathan cleared the deep midwicket boundary off Wijekoon, but was dismissed in the next over by de Silva for 40 after Kapugedera took a brilliant catch in the deep, jumping up to catch a ball destined for a six.India failed to build on the partnership between Yusuf Pathan and Yadav, with the last five wickets falling for the addition of 14 runs.The winner of match on Monday between Sri Lanka A and Kenya will face India A in Wednesday’s final.

On the eve of his side’s opening match against West Indies, Rahul Dravid suggested that India wouldn’t be following the Australian way, and experimenting with their line-up ahead of the Champions Trophy. Australia left out five regulars on Tuesday, and still managed to beat West Indies by 78 runs, thanks largely to a stunning collapse that saw nine wickets fall for 29 runs.”We’re probably going to be playing what we think is our best XI, based on the situation and the conditions,” said Dravid. “Selection is never easy. You have to choose 11 from 14, and benching three guys is always difficult. But we’re not going to be thinking of the Champions Trophy orthe World Cup while picking a team to win a match here.”He said that the quality of the opposition meant that India would have a good tune-up ahead of the bigger challenges that lay ahead. “It’s good preparation leading into the Champions Trophy. We’re playing against two very good teams. The standard of cricket yesterday was really high, and we’re going to have to play really well and hit the ground running.”After South Africa’s pullout and torrential rain ruined the triangular in Sri Lanka, Dravid said that the team couldn’t wait to get on the field and get the season going. “We had a tournament where we couldn’t even play one match, and we’ve had a lot of practice since,” he said. “Obviously,everyone’s eager to see if the things we’ve worked on in practice work for us in a match.”Looking ahead to the India game, Brian Lara had spoken of having a psychological edge over the Indians. Dravid, though, suggested that the series defeat in the Caribbean – West Indies won 4-1 after losing the opening match – wouldn’t have any impact on proceedings here. “It’s not playing on our minds,” he said. “They played well against us, and there’s determination and keenness to try and do well, but it would be the same against any team irrespective of previous results. You have to forget about success or failure that’s in the past.”Not having watched much of the opening game, Dravid declined to say much about the West Indian performance. “I didn’t see them bat. Obviously from what I’ve read in reports, they were in a very strong position at one stage and then Australia did very well to come back. It was shaping up to be a good game, but they couldn’t build on the partnership that they got.”He also insisted that he wouldn’t be influenced solely by Tuesday’s events when it came to team selection. “I think you’ve got to view most games based on what we see, but we’ll have a different pitch tomorrow,” he said. “It looked like it was a bit damp this evening and it’s got a few cracks,so I’d like to see how much it dries out tomorrow before making a final call on the one or two places that we have yet to decide on.”And while admitting that Yuvraj Singh would be missed, he said that he was focussed on the personnel available. “Yuvraj is obviously a very important player for us. He’s been a crucial finisher for us, but it can’t be helped. He’s not around, and it gives someone else an opportunity to put their hand up and do a job for us. Hopefully, someone will show the responsibility that he [Yuvraj] has shown for us in the last year in one-day cricket.”There was the obligatory question about Irfan Pathan’s struggles, with most people forgetting what an outstanding performer he has been in the one-day game over the past season. “He’s had a lot of success in the one-day game, and there’s never been an issue about him when it comes to that,” said Dravid. “He went through a bit of a tough period in the Tests, and people tend to forget that he’s only 22 years old. Because he’s had a lot of success so quickly, they forget that he’s still learning his trade. He’s looking at different areas of his game, and looking to improve. How he gets over this little blip is going to be good to see.”There were also words of encouragement for Sreesanth, who is part of the squad but out of the 14 for the Champions Trophy. “He’s taken it quite well and is working hard. These are ups and downs that you face as a young cricketer. Until you have a proven track record, you’re going to face such situations. That’s what I tell young kids, that you have to get yourself in a position where your selection is never in doubt. All of us go through that. It’s how you come back and what you learn from these experiences that will finally decide how successful you are in international cricket.”The easiest thing, and I’m not saying he’s like that, is to moan and complain. People will give you sympathy and try to give you advice blaming other people, but the most important thing is what sort of realistic assessment you have of your own ability. We try and be as honest aspossible with our young kids. In this day and age, people can get over-hyped and over-criticised, and we’ve got to keep things in perspective.”

The South African board has announced that Jacques Kallis will replace Nicky Boje as vice-captain for the next year. At the same time, Graeme Smith was re-appointed as captain for the next two years, which will take South Africa beyond the 2007 World Cup.”The appointment of a world class allrounder like Kallis as vice-captain will add much value to the team effort,” said Gerald Majola, the board’s chairman. “The extension of Graeme’s contract for another two years shows the faith we have in his abilities to lead the team from the front,” he continued. “He has brought commitment and a will to win and that augurs well for the future. We are confident he will take the team up the world rankings in both Tests and ODI’s, and present a formidable challenge at the World Cup.”The other major change was that Mustapha Khan, a former national player from KwaZulu-Natal, replaced Enver Mall on the selection panel. Mell has taken over as CEO of KwaZulu Natal cricket. Haroon Lorgat, originally added to the group, will continue officially in his capacity as chairman with Joubert Strydom as the third man on the panel. The trio will be joined by Smith and national coach Micky Arthur.Majola also announced the appointment of Vintcent van der Bijl as professional cricket general manager. “His appointment is part of our strategic plan to achieve the vision of making South African cricket a truly representative nation of winners,” he explained. “Vince has cricket in his heart and his head. He will be an asset to the professional structures we have in place. He will be reporting directly to me and will concentrate on professional playing affairs in terms of our strategic plans.”AB de Villiers was also added to the list of centrally contracted players.

Ever since Virender Sehwag became the new Tendulkar, the old Tendulkar’s been given a right bollocking for not being his old self. Pressure, burden, caution, restricted are the words used to describe his batting now. He used to be free-flowing, manic, electric and risky. Commentators say that he needs to play his own game, that his back foot moves across too much, among other things. Newspapers mourn the old days, when good ol’ Sach gave the ball a wholesome tonk. Sniff.Tendulkar repeatedly said that not much had changed, and all he was trying to do was bat for longer periods. But his words were buried under pages and pages of opinions on how he could get his batting magic back, disregarding the fact that he didn’t think he had lost anything in the first place. It was needless, harsh, and probably annoying. Last night, after shutting Bangladesh out of the game, he let fly in one of his more ferocious post-match performances.”People who are talking about me not enjoying my batting, better get it right. It’s a wrong perception. Those who understand the game wouldn’t be talking about it.” It had been building to this. A private man had had enough and he was going public. It could not have been easy. Try empathising with him. You score 40 in 30 balls and you’re offered advice on how to stay put for longer. You then score 80 in 110 and everyone says you’ve lost your groove. You try not to read what the papers say because it messes your head. So does the telly. Everywhere you look, someone has a reason for the way you play, and no one seems to understand that your changing game is a conscious decision. It’s like being 16 with a billion parents.Yesterday, for a brief while, Tendulkar batted on a different plane. He started slowly, with his bat and feet not coordinated with his mind, but gradually, the ball went where he meant for it to go. Out of the blue, he slog-swept a ball for six, and then charged at a bowler and changed his shot as the ball headed towards him. For a small period of play, there was raw energy. It was free-flowing, manic, electric and risky. Tendulkar hadn’t lost it, nor was he short on enthusiasm. The tools were all there. He’s just choosing which ones to use.It’s useless to compare him now with what he was then. He’s 31 now, not 16, when he could bat with a bugger-the-world freedom. It’s been 15 years. . It would be silly, and very worrying if he didn’t change in that time. We’d have been calling him one-dimensional by now. Even Rahul Dravid changed. Chances are, Sehwag will grow old and not thwack three fours an over. He’ll become more responsible. After all, who wouldn’t want to bat for a while longer if it means cutting out a few shots?His 241 at Sydney was like that. Remember how ball after ball went by his off stump teasingly, taunting him to drive? Remember how he restrained his drives and cuts, knowing they had failed him earlier in the series? This was a changed player, a player who knew his game, and was finding out what to do in different situations.At the highest level of anything, change is gradual. So it is with Tendulkar. He’s finding his balance in this new method of batting, and is getting it right more often. Sure, he doesn’t play like he used to, but it doesn’t mean the magic isn’t there. And here’s what makes the future even more tantalising. He spoke to Dileep Premachandran a few weeks ago, and said the thought of retiring hadn’t occurred to him. His batting would have changed even more by then, and considering the manner in which he began batting in 1989, that, in its own way, is a magical thought.

Chris Cairns will not bowl during the forthcoming triangular one-day seriesinvolving New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan after aggravating an old sideinjury.Cairns strained his right side during a recent one-day match forNottinghamshire. He will play as a specialist batsman during the seven-matchtournament.Cairns’ side strain is the latest in a long list of injuries that haveplagued his career. He missed most of the last year after majorknee surgery and has struggled to regain full fitness since."It’s frustrating," said Cairns. “I keep trying to come back all the time but myproblem is that I am coming back in a game and I am not giving myself enoughtime in the nets."You always want to do a good job, be it for your country or county, but Iam not doing justice to myself by playing when I am not ready.""I don’t want to set a time frame on my recovery…I just want to make surethat when I do bowl again in a game that I am fully fit."

Perennial ‘unfit’ fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was rewarded when named tolead PCB-XI in the warm up match one-day match against New Zealand tobe played at the National Stadium, Karachi on Sept 16.Opener Imran Nazir has been appointed as vice-captain of the team.Both captain and the vice-captain have been failed to get a place inthe Pakistan squad announced for the three one-day match seriesagainst New Zealand, starting from Sept 19 at Karachi.Aftab Baloch has been named as coach and manager of the team.The team is: Imran Nazir, Salman Butt, Faisal Iqbal, NaveedLatif, Hasan Raza, Shoaib Malik, Atiq-uz-Zaman, Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan,Shoaib Akhtar (captain), Mohammad Zahid, Yasir Arafat. Asim Kamal(12th man).

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen has expressed relief at having secured the full four points from a pair of WCL Championship outings against Nepal after both contests were marred by poor weather. The two wins put Scotland level on four points with the Netherlands after the first round of play, with both sides scheduled to face off later this summer at the start of round two.”Very happy, very satisfied to come away with four points,” Mommsen said after Scotland’s nine-wicket win on Duckworth-Lewis over Nepal following the continuation of the game into Saturday’s reserve day. “That’s obviously what we wanted to come away with at the start. There were some challenges with the weather but we got through it, so credit to the ground staff here for getting us on.”Several days of rain in the lead-up to the first match on Wednesday resulted in a wet outfield that caused play to be reduced to 36 overs. Scotland was able to hold off a furious Nepal rally in a three-run win while the hosts won a key toss on Friday morning to put Nepal in under difficult conditions with rain falling intermittently in the first innings, but never enough to take the players off.”Obviously winning the toss and bowling first in pretty helpful conditions, it was a fresh wicket,” Mommsen said. “There was some steady rain throughout our bowling innings so that kind of gave the surface a little bit more grease and a little bit more carry for our seam bowlers. I think we showed if there is anything in the wicket, we’re certainly capable of finding that and it was slightly more difficult for them to bat on.”With the second innings target reduced from 168 in 50 overs to 110 in 22, the team reprised their explosive efforts during the World T20 Qualifiers last month. A 91-run stand between George Munsey and Matthew Cross allowed Scotland to reach the target in just 13.5 overs and Mommsen praised the pair’s aggression.”That’s the way we like to play,” Mommsen said. “You would have seen that in the last few weeks and it was no different here. We want to put pressure on the bowlers and take the attack to the opposition. Crossy and Munsey did that very well today. That’s something that as a team, we’re trying to develop, the intent to hit boundaries and at the same time knocking it around and being very busy, which those two were.”Though Mommsen was satisfied with the batting and bowling efforts, he still feels that there is plenty of room for improvement in the fielding department. Nepal captain Paras Khadka was dropped twice on Wednesday during his near match-winning partnership with Anil Mandal and the memory of Michael Leask dropping Wesley Barresi on 31 before he made 75 in Netherlands’ 32-run win over Scotland at Edinburgh during the World T20 Qualifier is still fresh in the mind.”There’s obviously still huge amounts that we need to work on, in particular the fielding. We were below par in these last two games. In the qualifiers, it let us down against the Dutch heavily, dropped catches. So that’s something we need to address and set about some new plans moving forward to make sure we improve that part of our game.”On the bright side, Mommsen was positive about the depth shown in winning the World T20 Qualifiers last month without county players Matt Machan and Freddie Coleman, while both players and seamer Josh Davey were also absent for the wins over Nepal. The captain expects competition for spots to get more intense in the lead-up to the upcoming Intercontinental Cup and WCL Championship fixtures against Netherlands.”Guys will have a few days off and then come together. We’ve got some fixtures against some County 2nd XI teams in the coming week and then we have the Dutch series in Holland. They’ll be crucial games. That will be a strong Dutch team, so we’ll have to be at our best.”

ScorecardFile photo – Karnataka’s pace quartet picked up seven wickets among them•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Gautam Gambhir (75) top-scored for Delhi in a disappointing batting effort as they were made to follow on by Karnataka in Hubballi. Delhi, who were bowled out for 301, ended the day on 22 without loss in their second dig when stumps were drawn.Delhi began cautiously and negotiated the first hour without too much trouble, before the middle order collapsed in a heap as they slipped from 136 for 3 to 166 for 6. Manan Sharma and Vaibhav Rawal then put together 93 for the seventh wicket as Delhi briefly looked like avoiding the follow-on. But that wasn’t to be as Abhimanyu Mithun and Shreyas Gopal dismantled the tail quite easily. The pace trip of HS Sharath, Mithun and S Aravind picked up two wickets apiece.
ScorecardNitin Saini’s first century this season kept Haryana afloat, but Rajasthan still had the upper hand going into the final day in Lahli. Haryana, who conceded a 167-run lead, lost the wickets of Saini (146) and Mohit Hooda (56) in the final session to leave themselves a 120 run lead with four wickets standing at stumps.Virender Sehwag, returning after missing the last two matches due to the All Stars T20 in USA, was scalped by Tanveer-Ul-Haq to make it a forgettable outing as he finished with scores of 29 and 8 for the match. When he was dismissed, Haryana were reduced to 110 for 3, needing another 57 to make Rajasthan bat again.Saini then steadied the innings courtesy two important partnerships – 72 with Priyank Tehlan (34) and 88 with Mohit Hooda (56) – to keep Haryana alive, before Pankaj Singh’s double strike halted their progress. The Rajasthan captain first had Tehlan lbw before having Hooda caught by Tanveer in the dying moments of play to break into the lower middle order.
ScorecardAssam were on course for a crucial first-innings lead in Pune after Krishna Das’ four-wicket burst left Maharashtra reeling at 160 for 6 in response to Assam’s 298 that was largely achieved on the back of a mammoth stand between Arun Karthik and Gokul Sharma. Karthik batted for 283 deliveries during his knock of 130, his third ton this season, while Gokul, the captain, made 76 during the course of a 237-run stand for the fourth-wicket.Maharashtra’s openers fell cheaply to Dhiraj Goswami, the pacer, before Krishna Das got into the act. Before long, the hosts were in tatters with the top four back in with hut with just 60 on the board. Rahul Tripathi continued his good form to make a defiant half-century, but little support from the other end meant Maharashtra’s lower order will need to pull off a coup if they are to walk away with three points.